Adapted from a series of L.A. Times articles, Gangster Squad explores the true story of a band of secret "off the record" police task force who went after Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen, a high-profile gangster who was a member of the "Jewish Mafia" in the 1940's. The screenplay has been drafted by former L.A. cop and novelist Will Beall.

At this time, Affleck has not accepted the offer and is allegedly weighing the project against a few other options.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

i read will beall's screenplay LA Rex, guy knows how to write action and dialogue. he knows how to write a screenplay, I mean like, technically, he can make pages turn like a fan's blowing them through.

EXCLUSIVE: Finding a leading man can be difficult these days, but director Ben Affleck has found the perfect one for "Argo": He cast himself.

Affleck is set to star as Tony Mendez, the CIA exfiltration expert who created a fake Hollywood production to get six Americans who were hiding out at the Canadian ambassador's out of Iran. Alan Arkin and John Goodman are in final negotiations to co-star in Warner Bros.' Tehran hostage crisis pic as Hollywood producer Lester Siegel and Oscar-winning makeup artist John Chambers, respectively. George Clooney and Grant Heslov are producing the political drama through their Smokehouse banner along with David Klawans ("Nacho Libre").

Chris Terrio adapted Joshuah Bearman's April 2007 Wired magazine article, titled "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue American from Tehran," which told how the CIA and the Canadian government teamed to rescue six U.S. diplomats who'd been taken hostage at the American embassy by a group of Iranians in 1979. The CIA's ruse involved the explanation that the six hostages were actually a Hollywood film crew scouting a movie titled "Argo," and using those fake identities, they were able to flee the country.

Affleck previously directed himself to both critical and commercial acclaim in WB's "The Town," which went on to gross more than $154 million worldwide. Helmer just started negotiations to direct a remake of French thriller "Tell No One" for Warner Bros and Universal, and he's also producing "Father Daughter Time" for the studio. As a thesp, Affleck recently wrapped Terrence Malick's next untitled pic.

Affleck is repped by WME.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

Even as Ben Affleck is heading into production on his next film, “Argo,” everyone still wants a piece of “The Town” director. He’s been eyeing a handful of potential projects, with “American Bullshit” crossing his desk earlier this year, the sci-fi project “Replay” (which he has since moved on from), and he’s still got the New York Yankee wife swap tale “The Trade” somewhere in development. Just a couple of months ago he signed on to direct the long gestating American remake of “Tell No One,” but now a new project looks to be in line as followup to “Argo,” and it’s certainly the most tentpole-esque piece of material Affleck has been associated with (at least in the director’s chair).

THR reports that Affleck is looking to direct and star in the thriller “Line Of Sight.” The plot “centers on an elite commando squad transporting cargo while dealing with a global threat.” Sounds pretty dry, and here’s the twist: the movie will be told from the perspective of the protagonist, just like a first-shooter game, which sounds unbelievably dreadful. Here’s the thing with first person shooter games: really fun to play, really, really boring to watch. We’re getting nauseous just thinking about dealing with an entire movie where the camera will be whipping around with just that limited perspective. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a shock then that the latest draft of the script was penned by “Halo: Reach” writer Peter O’Brien. Can’t this just be an action/thriller/whatever without literally turning it into a video game?

Anyway, we’re not too worried. Affleck will begin shooting “Argo” next month with Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin and Scoot McNairy and it’s likely he’ll be circling/ offered even more projects between now and when he’s ready to make his next film. So he’s got plenty of time and will certainly have plenty of options before choosing his next gig. But seriously Ben? Your career doesn’t need the help of the the generally brainless productions Joel Silver is involved in to keep moving.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has just closed a high six-figure against seven-figure deal for screen rights to Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution, a book by Nathaniel Philbrick that will be published April 30 by Viking. The project was acquired for Pearl Street Films as a potential directing vehicle for Argo helmer Ben Affleck, who partners in the company with Matt Damon. Word is that Affleck (who is busy adapting the Dennis Lehane novel Live By Night to direct, star in and produce) will turn the book over to his Argo scribe Chris Terrio, making this a major project.

Philbrick is the author of Mayflower and the National Book Award-winning In The Heart Of The Sea, the real story beyond the white whale that informed Moby Dick, and the struggle of the whalers to survive after the giant whale split their ship in half. That book has long been at Warner Bros and looks like it is finally getting made later this year with Ron Howard directing and Thor’s Chris Hemsworth starring.

Resolution’s Rich Green brokered the movie deal for Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency, and Pearl Street president Jennifer Todd moving aggressively to bring the book into the fold, with Sarah Schechter overseeing for the studio.

Affleck, who until Argo had directed movies in the Boston backdrop where he grew up, is going home again as Bunker Hill is hailed as the battle that lit the fuse for the American Revolution in 1775.

The unease between Bostonians and British troops turned violent after the Boston Tea Party, when violent sieges erupted in Lexington and Concord and a British blockade led to outright war in the Battle of Bunker Hill, a bloody clash that united the colonies and started the war for independence. The story is told from a group of participants, including a 33-year-old physician named Joseph Warren, who becomes a leader of the Patriot cause; Paul Revere, George Washington, British General Thomas Gage, and others.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Affleck is in negotiations to play the lead role in David Fincher‘s Gone Girl, a development that will seal the Fox project pic as Fincher’s next film to direct. In the pic, based on the Gillian Flynn bestseller, Affleck will play a husband whose wife disappears on the day of their fifth anniversary, and all roads point to him as the killer. Fox made a 7-figure deal for the novel last July for Pacific Standard’s Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea, along with Leslie Dixon, to produce.

Flynn wrote the first draft of the screenplay. There is no female lead yet as it looks like Witherspoon is only producing. Fox recently brought on New Regency as a financing partner. Affleck’s casting is interesting because it means Warner Bros is allowing him to push back his next directing and starring project, the adaptation of the Dennis Lahane novel Live By Night, which he continues to prep. Shooting on Gone Girl is set to shoot this fall, and the thinking is Affleck will be able to finish up and still get Live By Night done for the end of 2014. I’m hearing that Affleck reached out to Warner Bros’ brass over the Fourth of July holiday, and the studio behind his Oscar-winner Argo made a fast and concerted effort to give him a quick answer and let him do something it didn’t stand to gain from. All this certainly signals that Warner Bros and Affleck plan to be in business together for the long haul, a relationship the studio was keen to preserve especially following the departure of Jeff Robinov, the just-exited former President of Warner Bros Pictures Group with whom Affleck had a “dream relationship”.

The studio had wasted little time setting Affleck’s follow-up to Best Picture Oscar winner Argo, beginning pre-production in May on Live By Night, about a black-sheep son of a police captain who gets involved in escalating levels of organized crime. Affleck is also producing as he did with Argo. Warner Bros acquired Live By Night in April 2012 when it was in galley form for Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran’s Appian Way, which had a pre-existing relationship with Affleck and produces with his Warners-based Pearl Street.

Fincher and Fox had been developing Gone Girl since since January. This is now his next project, ahead of Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea: Captain Nemo. He’s repped by Josh Donen and attorney Craig Jacobson.

Affleck the actor is next up in another Fox pic, Runner Runner, an action drama set in the world of offshore online gambling co-starring Justin Timberlake, Anthony Mackie and Gemma Arterton. It comes out September 27. Affleck’s repped by WME.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol